BEYOND
DESPAIR
By
Van Nguyen
Severe[ house after North Vietnamese topers seized the
Independence Palace Saigon; flags of the Front for the Liberation of South
Vietnam were seen flying here and there in the streets of Saigon. The Saigon
Radio incessantly aired chants and praises singing the Great Spring Victory,
the heroic exploits of the revolutionary armed forces defeating the enemy and
liberating the people from the yoke of the “American imperialism and the puppet
government.” North Vietnamese troopers in green uniforms inundated military
headquarters and public departments, agencies and offices. Within days, the
Military Admiration Commission seized control, reestablished the order in the
city. A week later, Ha Phu Thuan, a high official of the Privy Revolutionary
Government from the R Central Headquarters, was seen on assignment to conduct affairs
at the old Ministry for the Interior on Tu Do Street. North Vietnamese troopers,
and not the black-clothes fighters of the Privy Revolutionary Government of the
Republic of South Vietnam, were on guard around the Ministry buildings. Rumors
spread, saying that fighters in the Front for the Liberation were almost all
eliminated from the battleground after their retreat from Saigon following the Tet
Offensive in 1969.
Within days, volunteers with red armed bands appeared
at cross-roads, avenues, and streets, directed circulation of vehicles, and
kept order. A new system of administration was established at the
city precincts, wards, and streets. Military Administration Committees occupied
precinct headquarters and ward offices. Troopers assisted by undercover during
the Vietnam War seized control and directed public affairs. Volunteers, mostly
the “revolutionary of April [1975]”—the opportunists--, secured services at
streets cells. Volunteers helped local authorities with directing and
controlling daily public services. The head of “to an ninh” (security street-cell)
was particularly entrusted with reporting on the daily activities of all
households in the street. Every decision was decided upon by “the authorities
at upper levels,’ however.
The military personnel and public servants in the old
regime were classified into different categories. Those that were classified into
the categories of “the blood debtors to the people and the “Revolution’ were either subject to punishment without trial or sent
to prisons or reeducation camps for long-term detention. The high rank- and-file
personnel of the “puppet administration” were to report at various headquarters
or stations to be scheduled for reeducation. Lowest level employees working for
the puppet administration, even an office cleaner, could have involuntarily
contributed to the service for the “American imperialism and the puppet
administration.” All of them were also to be reeducated to repent on their
mistakes and errors. They were likely to be redeemed under the policy of
tolerance and leniency of the “Revolution.” Non-commissions and soldiers and
low-level public servants in the old regime were to report at ward offices for
the on-the-spot reeducation. They then had a sense of the generosity and
clemency of the “Revolution.” They had the obligation to attend sessions of
thought reforms, confessed crimes, if any, and mistakes and errors. Upon
completion, they would be likely given absolution and the right to the citizenship.
They would then be legally entitled to contributing to the socialist
contribution.
Reality proves the reverse. Servicemen in the Armed
Forces of the Republic of Vietnam are all “pirates.” Never have they been
treated as citizens. Right on April 30, 1975, South Vietnam wounded soldiers
across of the country, even they were on death beds, were turned out of
hospitals. There is no policy for these disabled soldiers. Neither is there a
policy of tolerance, clemency, and lenience in this regard. These “pirates’ are
seen as outlaws, and they are treated as the “enemies to the people.” Hundreds thousand
veteran disabled soldiers and servicemen and their family members have been preyed
to poverty and misery. Quite a few of them drag out a miserable existence at
the mercy of generous benefactors and passers-by on the sidewalks of townships
and cities.
As soon as troopers came in and seized control at public
departments, agencies, and offices, the new regime summoned on public radios all
the rank-and-file personnel of the old regime to report at offices to continue routine
service. Only several days later, high officials
and officers in the army or the security service from the rank of second-lieutenant
and higher were to register for reeducation at designated public headquarters
or stations for reeducation. Employees at lower levels were told to register for
on-the-spot reeducation at local offices or simply sent home for further
decision. Guardians or door-keepers were kept for temporary service. Within
days, almost all central and local departments, offices, institutions of the
old administration were subject to dissolution. Hundreds of thousand employees of
the old regime in Saigon were in an instant out-of-work and didn’t know what
would happen to them in the days to come.
Cadres and officials of all branches, trades,
and services—professional, non-professional personnel and undesirable elements--
from the North flowed to fill in the vacant positions at various central and
local departments, agencies, and offices of the old administration. Tumultuous
waves of cadres, officials, guerrillas, and unidentified elements from the
“liberated zones” in the South-- Ca Mau, Chau Doc, Rach Gia, An Giang, Tay Ninh,
Ben Tre, Kien Phong, Cu Chi, Binh Long, and so on- were brought in the
“newly-liberated” provinces, townships, and cities to fill in vacant positions at
public precinct and ward headquarters and offices. They assumed the executive
role, regulating public services. Officials and police officers from the North,
in particular, were in charge of the direction and supervision. Newly-selected servicemen
and the guerrillas from the “liberated zones “ were then seen in yellow
uniforms to direct circulation of vehicles and kept order in replacement of the
“revolutionaries of the April 30” and red arm-band volunteers. Elsewhere, in
the Center and the Central Highlands, similar campaigns for pacification were
carried on to reestablish public security and order.
Teachers and professionals in the domain of education
were given special treatment. The then Minister of Education Nguyen Van Hieu
declared: “Teachers are not pirates.” Nevertheless, educational public and
private educational institutions, establishments. and schools were subject to
restructure. Private educational institutions, establishments, and schools were
confiscated, and their right to the ownership of property was transferred to
the people. They were therefore, subject to dissolution. Thousands of members
in the teaching staffs were sent home. They were allowed, nevertheless, to
attend reeducation classes to reform thought and to understand the policies of
the “Revolution.” Like their colleagues in the public educational services in
the old regime, they might be selected to serve the new regime.
The processes for reeducation were phased in
unforeseen periods of time. Programs were scheduled for teachers to attend
on-the-spot reeducation classes. The term of classes varied depending on the availability
of instructors at each locality and the decisions of the local authorities in charge.
Teachers at lower levels attended short terms reeducation. Professors and
experts at higher institutions and university, especially professors and
experts in the humanities and social sciences at private institutions, attend
longer terms of reeducation. At the old Ministry for the Interior, during the
first days of the “liberation,” experts, officials, and professors at the “Vien
Tu Nghiep Quoc Gia” (National Institute of Training), for instance, were to
report at the old National Assembly for reeducation at camps. The low-level
personnel were assembled at the offices for a three-day thought reform class. Thought
reform sessions focused on the denunciations of crimes of “My-Nguy” (American Imperialism
and the puppet government). Attenders were called to repent on their own crimes,
if any, or mistakes and errors they had made against the “Revolution.” Thereupon,
they were given pardon but dismissed from service. Hope for continuation of employment
under the new regime dissipated, but they felt self-assured for having not
committed a “crime.”
Thought reform for the intelligentsia of Saigon was scheduled to take
place at higher educational institutions of the old regime, at the Saigon
Faculty of Medicine in Cho Lon (Saigon Chinatown) and the National Institute
for Public Administration in Saigon, for instance. These preparations proceeded
amid the tumultuous campaigns for defeating the reactionary bourgeoisie and
mercantile compradors, and thus attracting a large attendance. Some came out of
curiosity. Others were fearful of being attributed to as reactionaries. Still,
hopefuls were optimistic enough that they might be selected for employment,
having completed reeducation.
The
audience were reeducated in the eulogies for the glory of the “Revolution,” the
great leadership of the Party, and the
heroic achievements of the Vietnamese people in the fight for the liberation of
the people from the yoke of “American imperialism and the puppet administration”
in South Vietnam. Instructors and cadres elaborated barbarous and atrocious war
crimes by the enemies, the phony prosperity, and the debauchery of the life
under the old regime. Severest fights during the Vietnam War, Dong Xoai (Phuoc
Timh), Cu Chi (Gia Dinh), An Loc (Binh Long), Khe Sanh (Central Highlands),
were exemplified as the victorious achievements of the over the enemies .
In 1977, an official thought reform
program was especially designed for the intelligentsia in Saigon. Again, intellectuals
from various areas of culture and education were called on to attend.
Particular groups were, again, assembled at various locations, mostly at higher
educational institutions in Saigon. Teaching staffs and the personnel in the
humanities and social sciences at private higher institutions and universities,
for instate, reassembled at the Faculty of Medicine, Minh Duc University,
Saigon. Classes operated from Monday to Friday. The attenders were educated in Marxism-Leninism,
with concentration on the workings of the doctrine in all domains of the
political and economic life. Democratic centralism is million times greater
than the American democracy. Invincible socialism gloriously wins over capitalism.
Social justice is for everyone under the leadership of the Communist Party, the
representative of the workers and the working class. The “Revolution” gives pardon
to all who repent on their errors and mistakes. Everyone should contribute to
the cause of “the Revolution.”
Sessions of study were conducted under the
direction of cadres from the North. There is no limit of time for complete reeducation.
It takes a lifetime. Successful thought reform depends on the individual’s will
and wishes. The thought reform program terminated after an eighteen-month study.
Hopefuls for selected employment were told to continue activities in assembly at
the “Hoi Tri Thuc Yeu Nuoc” (Association for Patriotic They were encouraged to join
in socialist economic production—to learn practices for labor production,
digging canals at the pilot agricultural farms at the swampy areas of Thai My, Cu
Chi, and Binh Hoa and on the barren Nguyen Van Coi fields. After months of
waiting, several hopefuls were selected for employment on recommendations,
mostly from competent cadres and officials in the new administration. Others
voluntarily dismissed themselves from assembly at the association headquarters
in reluctance. Selected recruits for employment were a few. They were paid from
50 to 60 dong a month. With 1 dong, they could buy a piece of bread of about
200 grams. They seemed to be self-satisfied with their lot. They and their
family members would not be sent the new economic zone for socialist
production, at the least.
